100 Years Ago, The Nation's Deadliest Train Wreck Happened In Nashville And It's Impossible To Forget
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Meghan Kraft
Author
A century ago seems like a long time, but here in Nashville it only stretches back to one of our history-laden plantation homes. The heart of the south doesn’t skimp when it comes to deep stories and strange, haunting experiences. Our past may be sharp and age-old, but the deadly train crash that occurred in the summer of 1918 will forever remain in our minds, a fuzzy heartache that deserves to be recalled year after year.
If you find yourself wandering the Richland Creek Greenway in west Nashville, Tennessee, you may find yourself coming across a quiet, unassuming nod to one of the most deadly train wrecks in American history. It took place in the July of 1918, and has been bookmarked in history books ever since.
It was on the morning of July 9th, 2018, that two separate trains found themselves traveling towards each other on a single-track section of the Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis railroad. One had left Nashville bound for Memphis, No. 4, whereas No. 1 was thirty minutes behind schedule, speeding its way from Memphis to Nashville.
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You'll find a plaque and brief history of the heartrending tragedy on the Richland Creek Greenway. It memorializes and helps remember the dead, many of which were African-American laborers on their way to work in a middle Tennessee gunpowder plant.
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Both trains entered Dutchman's Curve, and collided at 7:20 in the morning, at speeds of around 60 mph. Train cars at the time were constructed out of wood, and the incredible speed and violence with which the trains collided completely destroyed all passenger cars. At the end of the day, 101 people were killed and another 171 were injured.
It's a horrible, horrible tragedy that brought heartache to many lives in the Volunteer State. The disaster is what eventually caused railroad companies to stop using wooden passenger cars in order to create a safer travel environment for their patrons. Still, if you find yourself wandering the Richland Creek Greenway, you may just feel the pall of the past settling slowly over the wooded pathways.
This creepy mausoleum in Tennessee also has quite the history here in the middle of the south…you may not believe the morbid story at first, but we promise – it’s true.
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